Florida Central Railroad (1868–1882)
The Florida Central Railroad was a railroad company that was originally established as the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad in 1851, and was renamed the Florida Central upon its purchase by carpetbagger George W. Swepson in 1868. It operated a gauge railroad line between Jacksonville, Florida, and Lake City, Florida. In 1870, it was consolidated into Swepson's Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad, which ran from Lake City west to Quincy, Florida. In 1882, both the JP&M and the Central, as it was known, were purchased by Sir Edward Reed, and together became known as the Florida Central and Western Railroad, in 1900 becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway system, a predecessor of CSX. Between April 4, 1993 and August 28, 2005, the line was used by Amtrak's Sunset Limited train. On June 1, 2019, CSX sold most of its Pensacola-Jacksonville main line to the newly formed Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad. CSX retained trackage rights on the route.
